Download Software Defined Networking Part 1

Software Defined
Networking
Part 1: The rise of
programmable networks
Market context | Technology concept | Business benefits
In summary:
As IDC points out, the emergence of Software Defined Networking
(SDN), and network virtualisation has the potential to underpin
and enable a fundamental transformation in the way businesses and
technology interact.
It is no exaggeration to say that SDN represents
the most significant transformation of networking
architecture and technology since the 1950s, but its
impact will be felt far more widely.
Based on the work of an international research
group drawn from across the Logicalis organisation,
this paper:

Outlines the market context that has driven the
SDN will play a fundamental role in enabling the
emergence of the services defined enterprise and,
by extension, the transformation of IT departments
into internal enterprise service providers.
development of SDN

Explores the SDN concept as it is currently
understood

Assesses some of the common benefits that
businesses can expect to accrue from a move
toward SDN
“SDN offers the potential to cut costs as it increases the ability
to create new applications and services, enable virtualisation,
and share networks. Thus, current operational costs and future
capacity requirements can be reduced. In addition, enterprise
IT can roll out services more quickly as it transforms from a
cost centre into an enterprise service provider.”
– IDC MarketScape: Western Europe Network Virtualisation Solutions 2013 Vendor Assessment
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Market Context
The information and communication technology market is undergoing a moment of transformation.
The growth in mobile devices and social networks, the increasing
adoption of cloud computing and, in the near future, the massive
use of intelligent sensors in various devices connecting virtually
anything to the network are all changing the way people,
businesses and societies operate.
But this change brings new challenges. In all of these
transformations, the network is the common denominator. It is
the binding agent, and its critical role in enabling a new world of
hyper-connectivity for people, businesses and governments is now
under scrutiny.
Legacy Architecture
While the world of technology continues to advance, the network
in most of its applications represents an architecture based
on concepts born in the 1950s; the 1990s and 2000s brought
impressive strides forward in the speed of networks, but this was
mirrored by only incremental improvements in network intelligence.
As a result, current
28.5%network architectures are robust and powerful
43%
enough to support most current use-cases,
but limitations in their
physical scalability and operational effectiveness pose a significant
risk to innovation in enterprise technology and in the emergence of
a new, hyper-connected world.
A New Model
28.5%
Responding to this challenge, manufacturers, researchers and
standards bodies have embarked on a new model for
network architectures.
Based on open standards, it aims to drive efficiencies in efforts
to increase network scale while reducing complexity—and to
increase the flexibility and speed of resource deployment while
driving down the cost of complex network deployments.
The result of this work is Software Defined Networking or SDN.
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Technology Concept
SDN is an architecture that foresees the abstraction of network control and data planes.

The software responsible for defining a routing process, security
policies, traffic engineering and data plans, is separated from
the data plane, the actual forwarding of the packet.

Network elements are responsible only for physical package
routing, while all routing control is through software at what
could be called the “intelligence layer”.
As the intelligent layer is decoupled from the physical network
forwarding layer, the decision-making process can now be
distributed to many more systems, and resources can be driven
throughout the network at greater speed and with greater flexibility.
This is similar to a concept now deployed in cars where the engine
management system is separate from the physical engine itself.
The engine still provides the horsepower and turns the wheels, but
the engine management systems decide in real-time how those
wheels are turned, something which dramatically improves driver
experience, safety and vehicle efficiency.
But SDN goes one step further. SDN is the engine control system
not for a single car, but for an entire fleet of cars.
The Programmable Network
SDN will create networks that are less complex to operate but are
more flexible and agile than ever before.

Traffic policies can be quickly refined as business demands
change, all without the need to individually configure switches
and routers.

Applications can directly interact with network resources,
28.5%
and the infrastructure
behavior can be automatically defined
according to the applications needs.

Virtualisation becomes as ubiquitous in the network as it is
within the data centre, turning a relatively basic ‘big pipe’ into
an intelligent resource that can be applied and redeployed in an
instant.
Intelligent and Business Orientated
In the SDN model, network elements (routers, switches, firewalls,
etc.) will be driven by APIs (Application Programming Interface) in
the operating system. This will allow any applications developed
by a network vendor or a mobile application vendor to interact with
the system’s control plane, making traffic engineering decisions
based on much more than just the physical device’s MAC, IP
address or basic CoS or QoS metrics.
In the new world, decisions could be made on information and
business requirements as abstract as the SDN model itself
including temperature, link cost, energy consumption or practically
any business driver.
With SDN, the programmable network is born.
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One of SDN’s foundation initiatives is the
OpenFlow protocol, proposed as an open and
universal language for the “communication”
between network elements and the creation
of dynamic flow tables. Many devices being
shipped today are already compatible with
OpenFlow, making the protocol the bed-rock of
SDN’s expansion.
As an OpenFlow alternative, in 2013 several
manufacturers created the Open DayLight
association. Sustained by the Linux
Foundation, it’s a collaborative project with
an ambition to create a standardised network
controller (element in the control layer), thus
avoiding protocol and network software
fragmentation, a major concerns when it
comes to open and programmable networks.
The Unscalable Human “Middleware” in
Legacy Networks
Human intelligence seems to know no bounds,
but human productivity is not infinite. It is the
constraint of human resources that has most
limited the agile provisioning of resources
within IT, with most provisioning or change
management still being performed through
human interaction.
Historically, this has not been a major issue.
Networks, and the devices on them were
fixed, usually to desks, and the applications
operating across them were homogenous in
their requirements. Changes to the network
were infrequent and usually part of a larger
change project.
Now, the network is supporting an ever more
dynamic range of devices, most of which
are now mobile, as well as a growing set of
dynamic applications, and services that push
demanding network requirements to every
port. All of this is also now combined with a
changing set of access and security needs,
traffic priorities and quality requirements.
Homogenisation must now make way for
personalisation.
SDN offers scalable organisational, line
of business, or individual personalisation
of resources; without having to scale the
organisation that delivers these new adaptive
environments.
In a world where the
network connects everything
and everybody and where
dynamism in adds, moves
and changes is moving from
a 24-hour SLA to real-time,
the promise of SDN is a truly
adaptable environment that
can be manipulated or that
can manipulate itself in an
instant.
As a result, SDN brings a double win; massive
adaptability requiring fewer resources than
today’s fixed networks.
Source: HP
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Business Benefits
SDN promises to unleash a wealth of business benefits; perhaps the most significant of those is
the role it will play in enabling the emergence of service-defined enterprises.
Specific benefits depend on use cases, industry and individual
applications, though there are a number of outcomes that are
likely to be universally beneficial, including complexity reduction,
centralised and more granular control, improved application
experience, and advances in availability, reliability and security.
SDN is a move from a manual to an automated environment, an
improvement which will increase the physical speed of resources
infinitely while delivering consistent performance as scale grows.
With a dramatically simpler infrastructure model, it is easier to
improve operational agility, reduce operational costs, and reassign specialist resources away from mundane tasks.
Complexity Reduction
Abstracting the control of the network from the physical
infrastructure breaks the link between human control and
network control.
This both removes complexity and improves response times to
changes to the profile of the network, whether that is provisioning
new services in the data centre, provisioning new services across
a WAN, or the direct application orchestration of real-time
network resources.
Centralised and More Granular Control
SDN brings expansive networks under a centralised control,
moving the programmability of homogenous networks from
different vendors back to a central point. It also moves network
control from a linear model of macro control to much finer and
nuanced policy implementations.
The combination of these two characteristics ensures the ability
and flexibility of networks based on the new architecture. Central
decisions can be made and implemented, and those decisions can
accurately direct resources and network profiles to create subtle
changes that can deliver significant characteristic improvements.
SDN also levels the playing field for the underlying networking
infrastructure, bringing together infrastructures that are currently
independent and turning them into a singularly controllable
network.
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This is true even in complex environments such as the data
centre where LAN, WAN, firewall, and load balancing resources
may come from different vendors. SDN treats them simply
as programmable resources, stitching them together at a
control plane and allowing them to be directed as one. SDN
also addresses one of the main issues in traditional network
architecture—the need to “pile up” protocols created to meet
different demands.
When making a change to large infrastructures, a new inter-woven
configuration is necessary for each element changed, and it is
up to the operational team to ensure that configuration X works
seamlessly with configuration Y. With software defined networks,
it is possible to replace some of the protocols that operate in “pile
up” mode, thus creating a more efficient routing environment.
Improved Application Experience
One of the most celebrated characteristics of SDN is its ability to
create intelligent responses to business demands. With simpler
configuration and centralised control, network administrators can
align infrastructures directly to specific application or end
user needs.
Network environment virtualisation also allows the establishment
of scalable and flexible traffic policies–based on the direct
requirement of each individual application, allowing application
changes or new deployments to be directly reflected in the
network layer.
As a result, the network acts and responds to the needs of
applications in real-time, which results in a better user experience,
or reflects an abstracted decision-making process such as the
cost of WAN bandwidth during a video call or the need to route an
application through a specific security environment.
SDN Key Innovations: Programmable at
Application and Virtualisation Level
1.
Data and Control plane abstraction – Deterministic behaviour,
predictable performance, quick convergence
2.
Flow-oriented data plan – Simplified planning, global
optimisation, offline analysis
3.
Centralised control and management – Multi-tenancy and
infrastructure sharing
4.
Hardware virtualisation and abstraction – Truly tunable
resources and improved performance
5.
Programmable networks – Application-oriented networking
Source: ADVA
Availability, Reliability and Security
SDN architectures significantly improve the availability, reliability and
security of network environments by eliminating the need for manual
interventions and individual device configurations.
Most outages of IT resources are caused by physical hardware failures
or manual configuration errors, and most security flaws to IT systems are
caused by incorrect configuration of firewalls, routers or other
security resources.
In SDN, while the human operator will set policy decisions, the SDN
control plane executes the changes to the network in what should be a
more consistent manner, and one that is less dependent on any specific
intervention by a human operator.
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Conclusions
Given the pressing need to move beyond legacy
networking architectures and the wide-ranging benefits
SDN promises to deliver, it is easy to see why the market
for SDN is expected to grow rapidly.
IDC research shows that the SDN market is currently in
its infancy, with product sales of approximately US$360
million worldwide. However, it is expected to reach
US$3.7 billion by 2016, with 58 percent of this investment
related to data network control and infrastructure
hardware and software.
It is therefore not surprising that all major ICT
infrastructure vendors are already designing strategies
and positioning themselves in the SDN market. And, with
SDN predicted to become a major force in just the next
two years, the market is creating many new startups that
either hope to drive the market or form part of some larger
vendor’s SDN strategy.
“
Software defined technologies are going to change the
game for our customers.
As every CIO looks to find a
partner that can transform the way
they define and provision agile
IT services, it is gratifying that
IDC considers Logicalis to be a
partner both our IT and business
stakeholders can trust.
We will continue to invest in the
skills that SDN demands of a new
kind of partner—one able to advise
customers from business policy and
IT service provisioning down through
the layers of SDN that make it a true
transformation technology”.
Chris Gabriel
CTO
Logicalis Group
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About Logicalis
Logicalis is an international IT solutions and managed-services
provider with a breadth of knowledge and expertise in
communications and collaboration, data centre
and cloud services, and managed services.
Logicalis employs nearly 3,500 people worldwide,
including highly trained service specialists who design,
specify, deploy, and manage complex ICT infrastructures
to meet the needs of almost 6,000 corporate and public
sector customers.
To achieve this, Logicalis maintains strong partnerships
with technology leaders such as Cisco, HP, IBM, CA
Technologies, NetApp, Microsoft, VMware, and
ServiceNow.
The Logicalis Group has annualised revenues of over
$1.5 billion, from operations in Europe, North
America, South America, and Asia Pacific and is
quickly establishing itself as one of the leading IT and
Communications solution integrators, specialising in the
areas of advanced technologies and services.
The Logicalis Group is a division of Datatec Limited,
listed on the Johannesburg and London AIM Stock
Exchanges, with revenues of over $5 billion.
For more information, visit www.logicalis.com
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